Jabugo

Appearance & taste

The hams are long and slender and have the traditional V-shaped Serrano cut; for the shoulder a “half-moon cut” is also allowed. The hoof stays on. On the outside they show a striking white or dark blue to grey mould that forms during ripening.

When cut, the meat is pink to purplish red, glossy and streaked with veins of fat. It is firm, not very fibrous and very crumbly, and tastes mild, sweet or slightly salty. The fat is supple, glossy and whitish-yellow; the more acorns the pig has eaten, the lower its melting point and the softer the slices feel. According to the specification, saltiness and sweetness are in fine balance, and the aftertaste is intense and particularly long.

The ham may be sold boned, in portions or sliced as long as its origin remains traceable. Each piece carries a numbered seal from the slaughterhouse and a numbered label that is attached when it leaves the ripening cellar.

Production

The pigs are 100 % Iberian pigs. At the start of fattening they weigh 92 to 115 kg on average. Between 1 October and 31 March they eat exclusively acorns and grasses for more than 60 days on dehesas with holm, cork and Portuguese oaks, gaining at least 46 kg. There are at most 1.25 pigs per hectare, depending on how many acorns there are. They are slaughtered at no less than 14 months; the carcass weighs at least 108 kg.

Slaughter, cutting and all processing take place in the Sierra de Huelva. The pieces are salted, washed and rested until the salt has spread evenly. Then they hang in natural drying rooms, where they “sweat” in the microclimate, and afterwards ripen slowly in natural ripening cellars at an almost constant temperature and humidity. The ham master decides when to salt, when to open and close the windows of the drying rooms and when the ham is ready. Hams under 7 kg need at least 600 days, heavier ones at least 730 days, shoulders at least 365 days.

Origin & history

Fattening takes place on the wooded dehesas in districts of the provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz (Extremadura) and Seville, Córdoba, Huelva, Cádiz and Málaga (Andalusia). Processing is restricted to 31 municipalities of the Sierra de Huelva, the westernmost foothills of the Sierra Morena, at altitudes of 500 to 1,042 m. Moist westerly winds from the Atlantic shed their rain here on the first mountain range; winters are cold, summers dry with hot days and cool nights. According to the specification, it is the southernmost area of the EU in which ham is made.

As early as 1236 the legal code “Fuero de Montánchez” mentions dehesas used solely to produce acorns for pigs. In 1604 Lope de Vega mentions hams from the Sierra de Aracena in his “Rimas”. One business registered in Jabugo in 1895 and by 1905 had a distribution network with hubs in Seville, Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto de Santa María, San Fernando and Cádiz; in 1883/1884, 400 pigs were already slaughtered in Jabugo. According to the specification, Jabugo today has the most processors of Iberian pork in the Sierra, and the knowledge of the breeders and ham masters is passed on from parents to children.